Can you express in pregnancy?

[upyourdiva]

A friend of mine asked me this the other day and I was not sure so I thought I'd ask you knowledgable lot :o

She is 7 months pregnant and leaking a lot so she wants to express and maybe freeze some to use in an emergency so she can avoid formula.

Yes, you can. It will only be colostrum though afaik so though some people with GD are advised to express as their LOs could need more than is usual, the tiny amounts involved will only be good at first and she's better off putting the baby to the breast to stimulate milk supply unless it has to be in SCBU or something.

If she does want to do it, probably best to get 1-5ml medical syringes and sterilise them to use.

Thanks, I just did not want to say yes.

She just keeps moaning about how much milk she is losing at the moment and would rather use it if she can. There are no medical implications with the PG as far as I know.

More just a case of not wanting to waste it and she is paranoid that she won't be able to BF so thinks that even if she could get enough for a few days before baby arrives it would give her peace of mind.

Not something I would ever have thought of but heyho :)

I would make sure she knows that in the first few days, the baby only needs something like 7mls colostrum per feed. Just so that she doesn't panic when she sees that there is nowhere near enough to fill a bottle!!

Agree with japhirmel that she will be better putting the baby to the breast and only to use the frozen colostrum in an emergency. Worth writing in her birth plan that she has frozen colostrum if she wants to avoid baby having formula should there be any emergency where she is unable to feed the baby directly.

I have done it as I had GD. It's a faff though as you need special sterile syringes to express into as although it may seem like it's lots leaking, it will almost certainly be only a millilitre or two. For colostruem she would need to hand express as the quantity is too small for a pump.